1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to moving picture encoding apparatus and method for encoding a moving picture (so-called stereoscopic moving picture) in which so-called right-eye pictures (also referred to as pictures seen with the right eye) and so-called left-eye pictures (also referred to as pictures seen with the left eye) are arranged alternately in every other column as well as a moving picture (so-called interlaced moving picture) in which pictures of odd number row and pictures of even number row are arranged alternately in every other row. The invention relates to moving picture decoding apparatus and method for decoding the above-mentioned stereoscopic moving picture and interlaced moving picture.
A “left-field picture” means a picture obtained by extracting only the left-eye pictures from a stereoscopic moving picture in which right-eye pictures and left-eye pictures are arranged alternately in every other column, and a “right-field picture” means a picture obtained by extracting only the right-eye pictures from the above-mentioned stereoscopic moving picture.
2. Related Background Art
As one of stereoscopic moving picture display devices, a parallax barrier system stereoscopic video picture display device is known, having a configuration in which a slit plate 12 provided with a lot of slits is arranged in front of a liquid crystal display 11 provided with a filter 10 composed of a plurality of picture arrays as shown in FIG. 1. The stereoscopic video picture display device is configured so that only the left-eye pictures L on the filter are seen with a left-eye 13 of a viewer and only the right-eye pictures R on the filter are seen with a right-eye 14 of the viewer, therefore, the viewer can recognize a stereoscopic picture visually. By the way, a stereoscopic video picture display device having a configuration in which a lenticular plate is to be arranged instead of the slit plate 12 shown in FIG. 1 is also known.
As another stereoscopic moving picture encoding system, for example, “STEREOSCOPIC VIDEO IMAGE TRANSMISSION METHOD AND SYSTEM” disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Hei 11-18111 is known. In this art, a conversion picture or conversion image is produced by composing collectively left-eye pictures on the left half side and right-eye pictures on the right half side for rearrangement, as shown in FIG. 2 (b), from a stereoscopic picture in which left-eye pictures and right-eye pictures are arranged alternately in every other vertical column. Next, processing such as moving picture encoding, encoded data transmission, encoded data reception, and moving picture decoding of the produced conversion picture is performed. After this, the same picture as the stereoscopic picture, which is an input signal, is reproduced by making such pixel disposition of the decoded conversion picture that left-eye pictures and right-eye pictures are again arranged alternately in every other column by rearrangement thereof.